Archive for the ‘ Bell ’ Category

Randy Adams, former police chief of Bell, in 2013. A California pension board decided to slash Adams’ retirement benefits because his salary was not approved in public. (Rick Loomis / Los Angeles Times)

By Paul Pringle June 25, 2015

A California pension board’s decision to slash the retirement benefits of former Bell Police Chief Randy Adams because his salary was concealed from the public will serve as a precedent for other cases in which government officials receive hidden pay, the panel has announced.

It’s time to salute Sheriff Baca, IBEW executive Brian D’Arcy and L.A. Unified, among others, for contributing to a great news year. Now for the scandals of 2014.

By Steve Lopez December 28, 2013, 4:00 p.m.

In more ways than one, I’m sorry to see 2013 fade into the books. Thanks to a steady run of incompetence, corruption and bungling by various public officials, it was a banner year for local news in Greater Los Angeles.

L.A. County Dist. Atty. Jackie Lacey said prosecutors will seek the maximum sentence against Angela Spaccia, the former Bell official convicted Monday on 11 counts of misappropriating public funds and other corruption charges.

Corrupt former Bell manager Robert Rizzo may be ordered to pay millions to the city, but his public pension and 401(k) are untouchable.

By Jeff Gottlieb November 1, 2013, 7:52 p.m.

When Robert Rizzo pleaded no contest to corruption charges last month, many of the trappings of his former life as Bell’s highly paid city manager were gone: the house near the ocean in Huntington Beach, the horse farm outside Seattle, the stable of racehorses.

Bell’s former city clerk told jurors that she slipped the lucrative contracts for city administrators Robert Rizzo and Angela Spaccia into stacks of unrelated documents that mayors would typically sign, even though the City Council never approved them.

The trial was underway Wednesday for Angela Spaccia, the second in command in the Bell corruption scandal.

By Jeff Gottlieb October 23, 2013, 11:12 a.m.

Angela Spaccia, the former second-in-command in the scandal-plagued city of Bell, went on trial Wednesday in a case that could establish who was the mastermind of the wrongdoing that made the working-poor city a symbol for municipal graft.

Jury deliberations in the Bell corruption scandal were “very, very tense,” according to a juror who described a day of rancor that the judge in the case said seemed to her like “all hell has broken loose.”

Jurors deliver mixed verdicts but fully acquit only one of six of the former officials. Many counts are left unresolved.

A Los Angeles jury convicted five of six former council members of stealing from the working-class city of Bell in a corruption scandal that became a national synonym for outrageous municipal salaries and rogue governance.

Hours after delivering a mixed verdict in the corruption trial of six Bell council members, a Los Angeles jury sent several questions to the judge that ended the day on a chaotic note and raised questions about whether they were unanimous in their verdicts.

State officials are taking disciplinary action against the accounting firm Victorville has used for years after the firm failed to find problems in audits of the financially troubled city of Bell.

Board of Accountancy spokeswoman Lauren Hersh tells the Los Angeles Times that Mayer Hoffman McCann could be fined up to $1 million for failing to find widespread corruption in Bell and its individual auditors could face discipline, too.

The former Bell city manager, who was once employed in Rancho Cucamonga, will receive drastically reduced pension benefits after the California Public Employees Retirement System slashed the payouts of top-paid officials.

Former Bell City Administrator Robert Rizzo, accused of illegally boosting his pension, sits in court in March. Rizzo was at the center of a scandal in which it was revealed that he and other Bell officials were being paid many times more than their counterparts in other cities. (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times / March 9, 2011)

Under the law, elected officials who are convicted of felonies also lose their pensions. That isn’t so with other public employees. By Hector Becerra, Los Angeles Times June 1, 2011

When former Vernon City Administrator Bruce Malkenhorst was convicted of misappropriating public funds last week, the gap between two sets of numbers immediately jumped out: The $100,000 in fines and restitution that Malkenhorst was ordered to pay for his crime. And the $500,000 a year state pension that he got after retiring five years ago.

L.A. County Superior Court Judge Ralph W. Dau rules that legislators cannot be sued for passing ordinances that award themselves high salaries. Last year, then-Atty. Gen. Jerry Brown sued to recover funds from Bell officials whose salaries were among the highest in the nation.

By Corina Knoll, Los Angeles Times May 6, 2011

A sweeping lawsuit against former city leaders in Bell has been tossed out by a Los Angeles County judge who for months has warned that the attorney general’s case seemed flawed and politically inspired.

L.A. County Judge Ralph W. Dau, in a tentative ruling, said lawmakers cannot be sued for passing ordinances that award them high salaries. The ruling has no effect on the criminal case against current and former city officials.

By Corina Knoll, Los Angeles Times March 18, 2011

A Los Angeles County judge on Thursday dealt a potentially lethal blow to a far-reaching civil lawsuit the attorney general filed last year as part of an effort to recover money from eight Bell city officials who drew some of the highest municipal salaries in the state.

Lawyers for six current and former Bell leaders said their clients would not accept plea deals that would have sent them to prison for two years and forced them to pay back hundreds of thousands of dollars allegedly looted from the city treasury.

Newly sworn-in Atty. Gen. Kamala Harris says her office will look into the lawsuit filed by her predecessor against eight current and former Bell city officials accused of misappropriating public funds.

By Victoria Kim, Los Angeles Times January 16, 2011

Newly elected state Atty. Gen. Kamala Harris said Saturday that reviewing the civil case against current and former city officials of Bell was one of her priorities, but that she had yet to determine how her office would proceed.

The state controller called Mayer Hoffman McCann’s examination of the troubled city’s finance a ‘rubber stamp.’ The firm has about 150 municipal clients nationwide.

By Jeff Gottlieb and Jessica Garrison, Los Angeles Times December 29, 2010

A week after a report by the state controller labeled the independent audits of Bell a “rubber stamp,” several cities are questioning their relationship with the well-known accounting firm responsible for the work.

California Watch A Project of the Center for Investigative Reporting Money and Politics

November 17, 2010 | Chase Davis

There has been no shortage of political profiteering in recent months over corruption and salary shenanigans down in the now-infamous city of Bell, but a judge’s recent criticism of a civil suit filed by Attorney General Jerry Brown has given ammunition to defense lawyers who have long argued that the case was used to boost Brown’s gubernatorial chances.

Action by Atty. Gen. Jerry Brown proves civil lawsuit was a publicity stunt in governor’s race, attorney for former administrator Robert Rizzo says.

By Corina Knoll, Los Angeles Times November 15, 2010|6:33 p.m.

A request by the attorney general and the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office to delay a civil suit filed against current and former Bell officials indicates a lack of evidence the city leaders plotted to loot the city treasury, the defendants’ lawyers said Monday.

Atty. Gen. Jerry Brown filed the suit in September, alleging that former City Administrator Robert Rizzo and others conspired to drive up their salaries, inflate their pensions and conceal the cost to taxpayers.

An L.A. County judge says Jerry Brown may have overreached his authority in the case, which seeks to force city leaders to pay back thousands in salaries and take cuts in pensions. Rizzo’s attorney says the case is dead.

By Richard Winton, Los Angeles Times November 5, 2010

In a blow to the state’s civil lawsuit charging eight current and former Bell city leaders with plotting to enrich themselves at taxpayer expense, a Los Angeles County Superior Court judge warned Thursday that Atty. Gen. Jerry Brown’s case is in jeopardy of being dismissed.

Brown appears to have overreached his authority in the lawsuit, which seeks to force the city leaders to pay back hundreds of thousands of dollars in back salaries and slash their future pensions, Judge Ralph W. Dau said.

Running for higher office, Los Angeles County District Attorney Steve Cooley touts his crackdown on Bell city officials for alleged public corruption, but a whistle-blower says he complained more than a year before prosecutors took action.

Democrat Kamala Harris, Cooley’s opponent for attorney general, accused the Republican on Thursday of dragging his feet in the Bell probe. Her campaign officials pressed the argument by releasing a letter from Cooley’s office and holding a news conference featuring the whistle-blower, James Corcoran, a retired Bell police sergeant.

VICTORVILLE • The same firm that’s handled Victorville’s audits for four of the last five years is now under scrutiny itself for financial reports Mayer Hoffman McCann prepared for the embattled City of Bell, according to officials with the State Controller’s office.

L.A. NOW Southern California — this just in September 21, 2010 | 11:23 am

Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. Steve Cooley filed charges against eight current and former Bell officials Tuesday, alleging that they misappropriated $5.5 million in public funds. Robert Rizzo, Bell’s former city manager, has been charged with 53 counts of misappropriation of public funds and conflict of interest.

Draft report alleges that $95,000 in city money was put in Robert Rizzo’s retirement accounts to repay loans he had made to himself. An expert says the allegations could amount to federal wire fraud.

By Ruben Vives and Jeff Gottlieb, Los Angeles Times

September 21, 2010

Apparently acting without City Council approval, Bell spent nearly $95,000 to repay loans that then-City Manager Robert Rizzo made to himself from his retirement accounts, a draft state audit reviewed by The Times shows.

The attorney general’s office files a lawsuit aimed at limiting officials’ pensions, forcing them to refund hundreds of thousands of dollars in back salaries and ousting three City Council members.

Attorney General Jerry Brown holds a press conference in Los Angeles to announce that he is filing suit against eight top officials in the City of Bell. It is the first legal action related to the city’s salary scandal. (Luis Sinco / Los Angeles Times / September 15, 2010)

By Jeff Gottlieb, Ruben Vives and Richard Winton, Los Angeles Times

September 16, 2010

State prosecutors accused Bell leaders of secretly plotting to enrich themselves and conceal their lucrative compensation, filing a suit Wednesday aimed at limiting the officials’ pensions, forcing them to refund hundreds of thousands of dollars in back salaries and removing three City Council members from office.

Los Angeles Times L.A. NOW Southern California — this just in Jerry Brown to announce ‘major development’ in Bell investigation September 14, 2010 | 7:58 pm

State Atty. Gen. Jerry Brown has called a news conference Wednesday to announce legal action in the state’s ongoing investigation into lucrative salaries and questionable business dealings in the city of Bell.

Ex-Bell official said his pay was lower than it was. Some experts say his actions could invalidate his contracts and require that he repay money he earned.

By Jeff Gottlieb and Ruben Vives, Los Angeles Times

September 15, 2010

Former Bell City Manager Robert Rizzo went to considerable lengths to keep his huge salary secret, including actions that could invalidate his contracts and potentially require him to repay money he received, some experts believe.

That measure, AB 1998, passed the Assembly in June and had the support of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, but faced a withering and well-financed advertising and lobbying campaign from the plastic bag manufacturing industry.

Capitol Alert The latest on California politics and government August 19, 2010

California lawmakers unveiled a six-bill package of legislation today in response to a scandal involving sky-high salaries paid to council members and top officials in the tiny city of Bell in Los Angeles County.

The city of Bell gave nearly $900,000 in loans to former City Administrator Robert Rizzo, city employees and at least two council members in the last several years, according to records reviewed by The Times.

The tiny city of Bell made national headlines after it was discovered officials had helped themselves to grossly inflated salaries, shining the spotlight on corruption in Los Angeles County.

More than a year before the Bell headlines broke, attorneys and investigators from the Public Integrity Division of the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office had been probing complaints of wrongdoing in the small municipality.

Confronting a hostile crowd, the Bell City Council met Monday night on whether to roll back property taxes, turn over administration of city elections to Los Angeles County and cut the cost of obtaining public records — the latest potential concessions by leaders of the small, working-class town in the wake of a salary scandal.

Of 25 charter cities in Los Angeles County, fewer than half paid their council members more than $20,000 a year. Meanwhile, Inglewood was paying $61,884; Vernon, $68,052; and Bell, nearly $100,000.

By Sam Allen and Abby Sewell, Los Angeles Times

August 15, 2010

City council members in Vernon, Compton and Inglewood receive significantly higher compensation than most of their counterparts in Los Angeles County, according to a Los Angeles Times review of salary figures.

Robert Rizzo has been dubbed the “Willie Horton” of overpaid public employees for his $1.5 million-a-year salary and benefit package to run the small Los Angeles County town of Bell. Now political campaigns are trying to cash in on the ensuing public outrage.

State Attorney General Jerry Brown, the Democratic candidate for governor, has announced a joint investigation with Los Angeles District Attorney Steve Cooley, a Republican candidate for attorney general. They’re looking into possible civil and criminal violations among Rizzo’s team of well-paid cohorts in Bell, where the police chief earned $457,000 a year – more than the president of the United States.

The city of Bell illegally raised its property taxes in 2007 and must immediately give up $2.9 million it has collected since then, state Controller John Chiang said Friday.

Chiang ordered Bell to immediately reduce the “retirement tax” rate, which its City Council increased in 2007 to cover rising pension costs for its employees. The reductions will apply to the next round of property taxes due in November, said Jacob Roper, a spokesman for Chiang.

The Los Angeles Times has been all over the scandal in Bell, one of dozens of small cities in the shadow of Los Angeles itself.

Two Times reporters, hearing that the county district attorney was looking into abnormally high salaries of Bell city officials, ferreted out documents that proved the allegations, including a nearly $800,000 salary being paid to the city manager.

California Attorney General Jerry Brown announced yesterday that his office is teaming up with Los Angeles County District Attorney Steve Cooley’s office in investigating the salary and pension scandal in the City of Bell.

Cities that provide officials with excessive pay would be subject to significant financial penalties, including a 50% income tax on city council members, under a proposal considered by state lawmakers Wednesday in response to the salary scandal in Bell.

The legislation would also require employee compensation and contracts with managers to be approved in open session at least seven days after the details were posted for the public on a city website. Those details would include such extras as bonuses and special vacation, insurance and pension benefits.

The desert town of Indio learned a painful lesson from its now-retired city manager.

BySteve Lopez August 11, 2010

I was never particularly good at math, but as I looked through the contract of former Indio City Manager Glenn Southard, I knew his $300,000-plus salary was not the best part of his deal.

Southard didn’t start at that salary. He was hired in 2005 for $240,000 after a long stretch working for the city of Claremont. But raises seem to come more quickly for some city executives than for the rest of us, even as local services and workforces are being whacked. In 2007, Southard negotiated a new contract for $300,000, plus a nice little bonus.

The city of Bell’s inability to pay off a looming $35-million debt has prompted Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services to downgrade the beleaguered town’s bonds and place the ratings on “CreditWatch with negative implications.”

The Republican’s new mailer and radio ad seek to undermine the attorney general’s watchdog role by accusing him of overseeing large salary increases while he was mayor of Oakland.

By Michael Mishak, Los Angeles Times August 9, 2010

Reporting from Sacramento —

Republican gubernatorial nominee Meg Whitman on Monday accused Democratic rival Jerry Brown of presiding over a Bell-style salary scandal while he was mayor of Oakland.

The charges, aired in a new mailer and radio ad aimed at Los Angeles County voters, come as Brown, the attorney general, gains political traction with his office’s expanded investigation into the Bell controversy. Three of that city’s top administrators have resigned.

Paul C. Malone launched his career in San Marcos government as a planner in 1981, when the North County city was still a teenager. He earned his way to city manager and is now paid almost $5,000 a week in base pay.

But his overall compensation stretches far beyond the $242,652 the city reports as his annual salary.

Voter approval was not needed for the obligation, which is more than twice the size of the city’s budget.

By Scott Gold and Kim Christensen, Los Angeles Times August 7, 2010

The small and cash-strapped city of Bell is on the hook for a $35-million bond debt that voters didn’t approve — and that the city can’t afford to pay off, The Times has learned.

The debt, which Bell took on three years ago to buy land near the 710 Freeway, is more than twice the size of Bell’s annual operating budget. Come November, the city could lose the land to foreclosure. The city’s hope to profit from the purchase fell apart in 2008 after city officials failed to conduct basic environmental reviews.

Several other administrators get six-figure paychecks, and two were given extra payments.

By Jeff Gottlieb, Hector Becerra and Ruben Vives, Los Angeles Times

August 7, 2010

The city of Bell, already under fire for paying unusually high salaries to three top administrators, acknowledged Friday that two more officials were earning over $400,000.

The city’s director of administrative services, Lourdes Garcia, was earning $422,707, and the director of general services, Eric Eggena, earned $421,402, officials said. Those amounts include salary, deferred compensation and some benefits, which city officials did not fully detail.

The state’s embattled pension system did not act four years ago when it learned about the city’s runaway salaries. The state attorney general and auditors express shock that nothing was done.

By Evan Halper and Marc Lifsher, Los Angeles Times August 6, 2010

Reporting from Sacramento —

The failure of the state’s embattled pension system to take action after learning four years ago of Bell city officials’ runaway salaries has put the fund under another unwelcome spotlight.

The state attorney general says he is shocked that nobody at the fund alerted law enforcement. Professional auditors are perplexed by the lack of follow-up that even board members at the California Public Employees’ Retirement System are at a loss to explain.

As Los Angeles prosecutors investigate potential voter fraud in Bell, several residents have told The Times that city officials pressed them to fill out absentee ballots in a way that election experts say may have violated state law.

Four voters said city officials walked door-to-door encouraging them to fill out absentee ballots. In one case, a woman said she signed papers she believed were election paperwork. She never filed an absentee ballot. But when she went to the polls on election day, records showed that she had voted absentee.

Even before state Controller John Chiang announced he’ll post city and county officials’ pay online beginning in November, two Inland cities already had decided to go public with official pay and perks.

Fontana posted top officials’ and council members’ compensation last week, shortly after Councilwoman Janice Rutherford suggested it and the rest of the council agreed.

HESPERIA • Robert Rizzo worked for Hesperia for just four years nearly two decades ago. But now that he was forced to resign as city manager for Bell amid a scandal over his massive salary, Hesperia is on the hook for roughly $80,000 of Rizzo’s expected $600,000 annual pension, according to Daily Press estimates.

Rancho Cucamonga will pay an estimated $160,000 annually for the eight years Rizzo served there before coming to Hesperia.

Capitol Alert The latest on California politics and government August 4, 2010

Democratic gubernatorial candidate Jerry Brown called for more transparency in the budget process today, saying the “latest scheme” released by legislative Democrats has “got to be vetted in the public.”

Brown, in an interview during Los Angeles television station KTLA’s morning news program, compared the current budget process to the pay scandal rocking the city of Bell, Calif., which he had discussed earlier in the segment.

Officials at California’s state pension fund became aware four years ago of the exorbitant pay raises being given to administrators in the city of Bell and did nothing to stop them, according to an internal memo obtained by The Times.

The memo, which pension staff sent to board members today, shows that the California Public Employees’ Retirement System granted an exemption to its rules in 2006 so the Bell city manager could get a 47% pay hike and still receive a full pension on his salary.

In the continuing fallout from the Bell salary scandal, State Controller John Chiang announced Tuesday that he would overhaul city financial reporting requirements to require that salary information for elected officials and other employees be clearly stated. The information would be posted on his office’s website beginning in November, he said.

The action comes as a Times analysis found that Bell’s reports to the state in recent years have shown that costs for its legislative activities, including City Council salaries, declined sharply since 2005, at a time when overall council compensation rose to nearly $100,000 for part-time work.

Mario Guerra turned on the TV in his San Francisco hotel room and saw “my city attorney trying to calm the crowd. I took exception to that.”

The Downey councilman had seen Edward Lee, who was “his” city attorney and city attorney of Bell, the SoCal town that has given “going green” a bad name. Guerra concluded Lee and his law firm — Riverside-based Best Best & Krieger — should no longer represent Downey.

FONTANA – The city has posted online the pay of its top positions in an effort to have a more open government and to avoid the type of fallout that occurred when leaders in Bell drew fat salaries out of the public coffers.

“I think their motivation is they want to be transparent,” City Manager Ken Hunt said Monday.

As residents of Bell recover from learning that their former city manager had an $800,000 salary, many Inland Valley residents may be wondering what type of paychecks their own city managers are taking home.

According to a fellow at the Rose Institute at Claremont McKenna College, the salary figures for city managers in this region should be considered normal.

Despite vowing greater transparency in the wake of a salary scandal, the city of Bell is refusing to turn over public records to The Times, community activists and even a sitting councilman.

“They continue to keep us in the dark,” said Councilman Lorenzo Velez, who has been critical of the high salaries paid to top Bell administrators and other City Council members. “The problem is a continuation of so many years of doing whatever they wanted in City Hall.”

Bell’s controversial city attorney — who was dumped last week by the city of Downey for his connection to the scandal-ridden town — announced Monday that he is leaving his firm to focus on helping Bell through its crisis.

Edward Lee had been a partner at Best, Best & Krieger since 2006 and Bell’s contract city attorney since the 1990s. The firm issued a statement Monday saying that Lee would be leaving Best, Best & Krieger. The firm also announced that it would be ending its contract with Bell, but would assist in the transition.

Under the state’s arcane, convoluted public pension system, Bell will pay a fraction of the city manager and police chief’s pensions. Former employers and other cities will bear the brunt of the cost.

August 01, 2010|By Catherine Saillant, Los Angeles Times

The unfolding story of the high salaries paid to municipal officials in Bell has delivered a surprise twist to taxpayers in Glendale, Simi Valley, Ventura and several other Southern California cities — they’re on the hook for the pension bills.

More than half of former city manager Robert Rizzo’s $600,000-a-year pension will be spread among 140 small cities and special districts such as Norco, La Cañada Flintridge and Goleta that are in the same pension liability pool as Bell.

California Watch A Project of the Center for Investigative Reporting Money and Politics

California WatchBlog

August 2, 2010 | Lance Williams

Rage. Protests. Investigations. Resignations. Cries for reform.

“Firestorm” is an overused word in the context of public response to scandal, but it describes the reaction to the Los Angeles Times’ report on how officials of the city of Bell, in Los Angeles County, population 37,000, became perhaps the highest-paid public officials in the nation.

The seeds of the state pension fiasco were sown in 1999, when Gov. Gray Davis and lawmakers raised retirement benefits for state workers, and many cities and counties followed suit.

BySteve Lopez

August 1, 2010

Marcia Fritz remembers it distinctly: She had a chilled glass of Handley chardonnay in her hand and was chatting with friends on the shores of Lake Tahoe in August of 2002. She was totally relaxed until one of her pals brought up an official in her mid-size city who was retiring. His pension was to be based on a 3-50 formula.

L.A. County D.A. examines the city’s $4.6-million purchase tied to a former politician.

By Hector Becerra and Paul Pringle, Los Angeles Times

July 31, 2010

The city of Bell has a pattern of doing business with current and former city officials, including an ex-mayor who served time in federal prison, according to interviews and records obtained by The Times.

In the most recent deal, Bell’s Community Redevelopment Agency last year paid $4.6 million to purchase property from a family trust of longtime politician Peter Werrlein, who was sentenced to three years in prison in the 1980s for holding hidden interests in a poker casino.

In his capacity as California attorney general, Democratic gubernatorial candidate Jerry Brown announced Monday that his office had subpoenaed salary, employment and contract records from the city of Bell, which had been paying its city manager a $787,637 annual salary and all but one City Council member nearly $100,000 a year for part time duties. Mr. Brown’s move, while a good use of his bully pulpit to decry the activities in Bell, appears to be more a politically motivated maneuver than one with any real basis for legal recourse.

Bell’s city attorney, Edward Lee, who served as legal counsel when the City Council approved lavish compensation packages for top administrators, was removed Thursday as city attorney for the neighboring city of Downey.

Lee, a partner with the firm Best, Best & Krieger, also serves as city attorney for several other municipalities. Until Thursday, that included Downey. But officials there were not happy that their lawyer was involved in what Downey Councilman Mario Guerra called one of the “most egregious breaches of fiduciary responsibilities in the history of our state.”

City administrators from around the state scrambled Thursday to get ahead of the unfolding salary scandal in the Los Angeles suburb of Bell.

The League of California Cities took the unusual step of lambasting one of its own and said it would explore state legislation requiring that the salaries of the highest-paid employees in state and local government be made easily available to the public.

Democratic gubernatorial candidate and attorney general Jerry Brown evaporated from the air waves yesterday after Los Angeles County District Attorney Steve Cooley arrived on the scene to set the record straight regarding his office’s investigation into the City of Bell salary and pension scandal.

Brown has went quiet on the Bell episode in the the media circuit since Cooley gave interviews to newspaper and radio stations starting Monday.

RANCHO CUCAMONGA – The former city manager of Bell, who stepped down last week after news reports unveiled his unusually high salary of more than $787,000, got his start in Rancho Cucamonga, where he rose through the ranks in eight years to become assistant city manager.

Robert Rizzo, 56, possibly the highest-paid city manager in the nation, was hired by Rancho Cucamonga as an administrative aide in 1980 and later became an administrative analyst and an assistant to the city manager before becoming an assistant city manager.

Three highly paid administrators in Bell will not be permitted to draw their state pensions until the attorney general determines whether the city broke the law in awarding the hefty paychecks, according to an official with the California Public Employees’ Retirement System.

“CalPERS is concerned about the situation, and our intention is to not [to] entertain applications for pensions from any of these people until the investigation is complete,” said Pat Macht, the agency’s external affairs director.